Lest you think I have bounced back from my surgery in record time and couldn’t wait to go back into the kitchen, I am working on some sharing some special meals prior to our trip. Truthfully, my appetite has taken a while to bounce back and we suspect my standard vegan diet contained too much fibre for my (at-the-moment) delicate gut.

As we move towards spring produce, this quick and easy stir fry with mushrooms, cabbage, sauerkraut and soy curls is delightful with a hit of fresh dill. The recipe is from The Great Vegan Protein Bookand was originally called “Cabbage-n-Kraut with Seitan” but I alternated the main protein source, swapping seitan for soy curls. After a taste test form Rob, he told me I had just made a vegan version of the national Polish dish, Bigos, traditionally known as a Hunter’s Stew with different kinds of meat simmered with cabbage, sauerkraut and mushrooms with a touch of tomato. Score!

For those concerned with protein sources as a vegan, The Great Vegan Protein Bookhelps by tackling that question directly. Main vegan protein sources, legumes/beans, whole grains, nuts/seeds, tofu/tempeh and seitan are highlighted in the recipes. Ingredients less often thought as protein-dense, such as nutritional yeast and vegetables such as mushrooms, broccoli and Brussels sprouts, are also highlighted making recipes that are quite diverse. There are also snacks and desserts, including a No-Bake Choco Cashew Cheesecake with 9 g protein per serving.

All recipes include the protein content of each dish, although no other nutritional information like total calories which is a shame. Certainly the dishes featuring tofu, tempeh and seitan contain the most protein. Examples include Tempeh Banh Mi (41 g protein/serving), Higher Protein Sausage (86 g protein/sausage), Sesame Seitan Super Salad (55 g protein/serving), Pecan-Crusted Seitan Cutlets with Brussels Sprouts (51 g protein/serving), Braciola (68 g protein/serving) and Homestyle Potpie (47 g protein/serving). There is also a Beans and Greens Bowl with 23 g protein/serving and the BBQ Lentils with 12 g protein/serving.

Personally, I like to plan my meals around some sort of vegan protein. Once you figure that out, the rest of a balanced meal naturally takes place. Beans will contain protein and carbohydrates, tofu and nuts contains protein and fat, etc. Rounded out with some vegetables, this is how I try to craft my eats. This book is welcome to my cookbook collection with its varied and balanced meals.

Thankfully, the publisher allowed me to giveaway the cookbook to a reader living in the United States or Canada. To be entered in the random draw for the book, please leave a comment below telling me about your favourite vegan protein and how you like to cook it. The winner will be selected at random on May 1, 2015. Good luck!

You know Rob is a keeper when he doesn’t kill you when it is time to pack. And a) you have essentially doubled your cookbook collection while in Houston (although I limited myself to 10 books for my move) and Rob is now packing your heavy books; b) while you should be packing, instead you are cooking the last of the bits in the refrigerator, so I am still net loss worth for packing. And then there’s c) please don’t pack my cookbooks I still want to review! Eventually I had to give in…. and help pack. And thankful that most books I receive to review come in electronic form.

Especially after making my own e-cookbook, I have grown to appreciate digital books. They have their pros and cons. They are easier to search, but not as fun to read. I miss the ability to curl the pages and find new random recipes. Although they are definitely easier to move. They also allow me to write posts in the airport.

Afro Vegan is Terry Bryant’s new cookbook. A lover of good food, he has managed to fuse soul comfort food with gourmet twists. His muses vary from Caribbean soul cuisine, Southern US down home cooking and African menus. Pecan cornbread with dukkah? Sweet plantain and Fresh Corn Cakes? Peanut Pumpkin Fritters? Jamaican Patties Stuffed with Maque Choux? Spinach Peanut Sauce? Trust me, it all sounded good to me, I was sad I haven’t had enough time to explore it.

While a bit more complex than my weeknight meals, there are more simple and more elaborate dishes. Delicious and innovative all-round. I loved, loved, loved my version of his Southern black eyed peas, I shared it before the book was even released to the masses. Now I am sharing another great soup, which I simplified by skipping the dumplings. This black bean stew, inspired by the Brazilian feijoada, is more tomato-heavy than my previous versions, but still nice and hearty and simple enough for an easy meal.

Thankfully, the publisher is letting me share the recipe AND give a cookbook to one reader living anywhere (except maybe the moon). To be entered, please leave a comment here, any comment. I will randomly select a winner on July 30, 2014. Good luck!

My brother likes to make fun of my standardbreakfasts: oatmeal + protein powder + spice/fruit + flax/chia. Not the oatmeal, the protein powder part. Why do I need that? That isn’t all natural. For me, it is one way to ensure I reach my daily protein needs and gives me a filling breakfast (oats alone do not do that).

It is true: I eat things that have been processed. I can’t make everything from scratch and sometimes I think it is necessary to tap into the best parts of what a plant can give me. I am anti-white flour because flour has been stripped of its nutrients, but what if I told you I found a fortified wheat “flour”? One filled with 75% protein. It is called vital wheat gluten. You strip away everything but the protein. Wheat protein powder! Instead of adding it to smoothies, like my regular protein powder, I bake with this one.

I have made seitan before. I liked these chorizo sausages, especially with cabbage, as well as Chinese Five-Spice Seitan with cabbage. I’ve also trying the boiling method to make seitan directly in a stew (the Iraqi eggplant stew was oh so good). However, always up for a new recipe, this time I tried a baked sausage. For some reason, I remembered seitan being a pain to make, with kneading and resting, etc. I wanted to see how a simpler recipe would compare. Just a bit of kneading, and then a simple bake. This one lacked chickpea flour and mashed beans (vital wheat gluten only) and used flavours from nutritional yeast, smoked paprika, mustard and tamari and was easy to make.

Seitan is also known as wheat meat. This recipe reminded me of that. It tasted more bread-like. I don’t think that’s how most seitan is supposed to be (maybe because I decreased the oil?) but I still thought it tasted good. And they were easy to make. Mix, knead, bake.

I rechristened these as sausage buns because they are buns that taste like sausage, not because there is a sausage in the bun.. HA! Most recipes tell you to let your seitan cool and an overnight chill in the fridge is recommended to enhance their flavour. Well, I ate these puppies straight from the oven, unadorned, only cooled so that I could unwrap them without burning my fingers. Delicious. A warm bun. A (super) filling high-protein bun. (I am not joking, if you make this into 3 buns, each bun is 50g of protein and only 315 calories). And super filling. Bready and chewy with a nice flavour from the smoked paprika and nooch. I found them a bit salty, which may explain why I liked them so much, so next time I would suggest decreasing the salt and/or tamari and add to taste.

What are your thoughts on seitan? Not too popular with anyone on an anti-gluten diet, but if you are not gluten-sensitive, definitely give it a shot.

My choice of bedtime reading usually includes a cookbook. Rob actually reads novels. Books with chapters, a beginning, a middle and an end.

When we packed for Colombia, we debated how many books to bring. I typically read 1 book while on vacation: my travel guide. Rob was adamant that he would likely read a bunch of books. In the end, we brought 5 books, including the travel guide.

After 2 weeks, I had read the travel guide and 1 book. Rob had plowed through all the books.

While I don’t read many novels, I really enjoyed my book: The Fortune Cookie Chronicles. It is a collection of short, thought-provoking essays about American culture through the eyes of Chinese food. Lee starts off by exploring people’s thoughts on fortune cookies after a national lottery gets pummeled with too many winners- they had all picked the same numbers from a fortune cookie. In a dizzying around-the-world tour-de-force, Lee visits the home of the real General Tso, puzzles together the origins of chop suey and the first fortune cookie and crowns the world’s greatest Chinese restaurant. This isn’t a flippant ready-for-the-masses book, though. It is smartly written in an accessible manner. Have you ever thought about the dangers of being a delivery person? Or the lives affected through human trafficking? Or why the Chinese food in the US cannot be found in China?

To be honest, I did not really like Chinese food take-out but as a child, we had the occasional visit to the local Chinese restaurant. I can see how Chinese food helped to embrace the worldly culinary culture we now have. With its emphasis on saccharine-sweet and cornstarch-goopy sauces, I haven’t been to a Chinese restaurant in ages, though. I have made a handful of Chinese meals at home, usually healthier vegetablestir-fries, where I can reduce the sauce myself without cornstarch and keep any sweeteners to a minimum.

I am really digging veggie-centricstir-frieslately, and this was no disappointment. Quick to put together, dinner was served in under 20 minutes. The fermented black beans add the depth of flavour ones expects from authentic Chinese food which is highlighted with rice vinegar and sake. The ginger and garlic add a nice hit of flavour and feel free to add Chinese chili paste if you want it hotter. The Chinese five-spiced seitan was a perfect complement to the wilted cabbage, conferring sustenance to the dish with a major protein component.

So, tell me. Did you grow up eating Chinese food? Do you still eat it? What is your favourite Chinese recipe?

Returning from vacation the day before you return to work is not a good idea. Jet-lag was one reason it took me so long to get back into the groove after returning from Iceland.

Thankfully, I was forward-thinking and froze a bunch of meals before we left. I had dal bhat waiting for me upon my return as well as this delicious Iraqi-Inspired Eggplant and Seitan Stew from Susan at Fat Free Vegan.

Just like dal bhat, this was a savoury, comforting stew. Filled with warming spices like nutmeg, smoked paprika, cinnamon, cloves, coriander, cumin and cardamom, you have a winning combination with silky yellow split peas and chunks of seitan in a pomegranate-infused sauce. I modified it only slightly by using liquid smoke and substituting Aleppo chili flakes for the larger chilies.

I have made seitan, or wheat meat, once before as chorizo sausages. This recipe is neat because you make a batch of seitan specifically for this recipe. The results are chewy nuggets admixed within the cooked eggplant and split peas. A nice play of textures with a definite protein boost.

This was a delicious stew to return home to, especially since it was so cold upon our return. Curl up with a bowl of stew any day you need some a virtual warm hug from a bowl.

November is special in many ways. Of course, there is Remembrance Day. For some, it is a month to grow a moustache in support of raising funds for prostate cancer research (aka Movember). For others, it is a celebration of vegan food through almost daily blogging (aka Vegan MoFo).

I am neither a vegan, nor a vegetarian, nor do I plan to write 20-30 posts this month about vegan food. In fact, most of my vegan recipes are serendipitous as I search out healthy recipes. But I figured I’d pay homage to Vegan MoFo by posting vegan-friendly dishes all month. Sofar, sogood (and I bet you may not have noticed they were vegan!).

In fact, I wanted to take things a bit further by going where few non-vegans have gone before: making vegan “meat”.

Yes, I made my own homemade sausages… without any meat!

And it was fun!

Adapted from Viva Vegan, you mix and knead together vital wheat gluten and some chickpea flour with some vegetable broth and olive oil and a ton of flavourings: tomato paste, garlic, cumin, coriander, Mexican oregano, chili flakes, smoked paprika, nutritional yeast, and if you like it hotter throw in some cayenne and peppercorns.

I am not particularly familiar with chorizo, so I can’t say how close these are to the real deal. They were a bit soft right out of the oven but firmed up slightly after sitting in the refrigerator overnight. They were scrumptious, though! Little dumplings bursting with flavour. Nearly entirely filled with protein, at that.

I added them to the Brazilian Potato-Kale Soup and it definitely brought it to the next level. I was fishing out the chorizo for each bite. It was delectable.